About those Mother’s Day coupons in your news feed…

Tuesday, May 09, 2017

Scammers will try to piggyback onto anything that might turn your money into their money, and unfortunately the upcoming Mother’s Day holiday is no exception. In this case, people are asked to fill out a survey to get “coupons” for large discounts from major retail chains like Bed, Bath and Beyond ($75) and Lowe’s ($50).

These fake coupon offers often show up in people’s news feeds on Facebook and other social media channels. The coupons may never arrive and are worthless anyway, but the private information you provide when filling out the survey is valuable to the crooks. They can use it to commit Identity Theft and/or target you for email “phishing” scams in the future.

To protect yourself from these and other scams, be on the lookout for emails that ask you to confirm your personal information or account number, or to transfer money. Don’t click on anything in an email unless you were expecting to receive the message and you are absolutely certain that it is safe… even if it appears to come from a trusted source like your bank or a friend. Verify with the friend or bank that they sent you an email first. Don’t call a number listed in the email.

When you see a large discount coupon, be skeptical and verify its legitimacy with the company before you do anything. And most of all remember that if something seems too good to be true (like for instance, receiving a large discount just for filling out a survey), it probably is.

If you are concerned about a scam, please file a complaint at www.ncdoj.gov or call 1-877-5-NOSCAM.